Acheh, 9 Juni 2005
Bismillaahirrahmaanirrahiim.
Assalamu'alaikum wr wbr.
WHY SHOULD THE INDONESIAN MILITARY
AND ITS BITTER HARD-LINE ALLIES IN PARLIAMENT DECIDE THE FATE OF THE ACHEHNESE
?
Muzakkir Manaf
Acheh - SUMATRA.
WHY SHOULD
THE INDONESIAN MILITARY AND ITS BITTER HARD-LINE ALLIES IN PARLIAMENT DECIDE
THE FATE OF THE ACHEHNESE ?
Acheh-Sumatra
National Liberation Front
Military
Central Command The Commander-In-Chief
Press
Release 09.06.05
The
announcement by Indonesia's Chief Security Minister Widodo A.S. that Jakarta
will not allow Acheh to have it own local political parties and hold new local
elections confirms an old saying: The more things change, the more they stay
the same.
That
painful wisdom continues to fit a half-century of Jakarta's deceitful
mistreatment of Acheh.
Indonesian
president General Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono announced to the world some months
ago that Acheh could have anything short of independence. It is becoming clear,
however, that what he really means is that Acheh can have nothing more than the
status quo.
Our government-in-exile
has offered enormous compromises in order to find a way forward to end this
long conflict. We brought neither independence nor a referendum on independence
to the negotiating table – the two demands that Achehnese have long made to
solve 132 years of brutal Dutch and Indonesian rule.
Achehnese,
foreign governments and good citizens throughout the world hoped that Jakarta
would make parallel compromises. One hundred and thirty thousand tsunami deaths
and one hundred and twenty thousand still missing might finally alter Jakarta'
longstanding colonial attitude toward Acheh and the Achehnese. Most Indonesians
- including peace-seeking Indonesian leaders like Jusuf Kalla - have demanded
the Acheh conflict be solved peacefully with regard to political rights of the
Achehnese
But with
Widodo's announcement on Wednesday, it becomes terribly clear that Jakarta has
no intention of taking the slightest step forward. By rejecting reasonable
political measures to help solve the conflict, the Indonesian government has
shown - despite the tsunami and General Yudhoyono's political posturing- that
it has changed not one bit.
But why
should the Indonesian military and its bitter hard-line allies in Parliament
decide the fate of Indonesia and the Achehnese?
Among
Achehnese, it is a well-known rule that whatever Jakarta offers us with one
hand – provincial status, autonomy, apologies, human rights trials, a
referendum, special autonomy, cease-fires, self-government and a just peace –
it will surely take away, undermine, or make meaningless with the other.
Yudhoyono
is not the first Indonesian president in recent times to forget or take back a
promise to us. Any Achehnese boy or
girl over the age of ten can recall that BJ. Habibie pledged to remove the
Indonesian army of occupation, Abdurrahman Wahid offered us a referendum on
independence and Megawati Sukarnopoutri swore no more Achehnese blood would be
spilt. But some senior Indonesian politicians can't seem to remember what
government negotiators vowed just last week.
On banners,
in news programs and television advertisements after the tsunami, Indonesians
announced to the world, "We cry for Acheh." Yet, in a few short
months, those tears have proven to be not an impetus toward a just settlement,
but a momentary distraction while the familiar tidal wave of Indonesian
military terror continues.
As ever,
Jakarta intends to conquer Acheh, not seek compromise with it.
The more
things change, the more they remain the same.
Central
Military Command
Muzakkir Manaf
Commander-In-Chief
Received
from: Sofyan Dawod
tna.spokesman@gmail.com
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